Foreigners in Italy

Source: Istituto Nazionale di Statistica


The following is a graph of foreign population of men (in blue) and women (in red) in Italy on 01/01/06.

This graph demonstrates:

- The highest population of men are 37 years old.
- The highest population of women are 31 years old.

- There is a significant increase in the men/women ration starting at the age of 10.

- There is a significant decrease in the men/women ratio at the age of 47.

- Immigrant women are roughly the same in numbers.

The 2004 movie Saimir chronicles an Albanian teenager that gets involved in human trafficking of other illegal immigrants. It is unclear on how the immigrant youth live in Italy. The increase of immigrants at the age of 10 is rather startling and hopefully the boys are not starting to immigrate at the age of 10 all alone. It is unclear how many alone teens there may be but there may be a higher probability that the boys are coming with a father leaving the mothers and sisters in their native land.

Regardless of how it is completed, it does seem tragic to think that families are divided for financial or political pressures.

The 47 year old gender tipping point is also noteworthy. This may demonstrate that the men return to their native country in their 40's, or it may mean that their lifespan is that much less than that of Italy on average. I find the former rather unlikely as even impoverished nations have higher lifespans.

The immigration issue is hard to analyze as there are so many undocumented and they are hard to track. Above all, it is hoped that the children are cared for properly.

Italian Emigration and Immigration

A lot can change from in 3 years...

N. Italy in 1796:




N. Italy in 1799:



That was just at the time when the US congress passed the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798. It says says anyone "opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States" could be imprisoned for up to two years. This gave rather unreasonable powers over immigrants to the US.

From the late 1800s to the early 1900s, Italians were emigrating in droves when starvation and disease drove Italians to America. 25 million emigrated from a nation left with only 32 million.

Up until WWII, the nation still saw mass emigration in the 1930s of 300,000 per year. During WWII, Italians had been interned in the US like the Japanese and Germans.


Boundary changes have produced refugees since ancient times. And now strife in Africa, the former Yugoslavia, and the fall of the Soviet Union have caused mass refugees fleeing their country. Italy is a gateway for entrance to Western Europe. It has the largest coastline sitting in the middle of the Mediterranean.


Currently, the birth rate is smaller than the death rate (8.5% and 10.5% respectively). This sort of emigration is slowly eating at the Italian population. The only rises in population are now due to immigration of which standards have just been eased.


Berlusconi is now accusing the new immigrants of raising crime within Italy. A recent poll said 43 percent of Italians see immigrants as a threat to public security, up from 39 percent in mid-2005.


Leftists may argue that Immigration may be a vital part in sustaining growth for the nation with a still stagnant economy. This source of cheap labor could be used to maintain Italians lifestyles.


Yet, Italians are getting progressively more concerned about these immigrants. It is hard to not remember their history of being immigrants themselves, however Italy's Italians are composed of those that have never emigrated.


The immigration issue is still unresolved even after recent legislation, and now is being used as a political tool for Berlusconi to try to regain power. It will be interesting to see how it resolves, however it may take longer than anyone may anticipate.

The Vaticans Grip

Recently, the Vatican has also been accused of interference in Italy for telling lawmakers to oppose a draft law that would grant some rights to unwed and gay couples.

From Reuters:

Catholic parishes up and down Italy have handed out millions of flyers urging the faithful to rally outside Rome’s St John in Lateran cathedral on Saturday for “Family Day”, against what they see as an attack on family values by the left.

The Vatican has a grip on Italy that is more than religion, but involves culture too. 88% of Italians claim to be Catholics, however, only 37% claim to practice. In the same survey, only 19% support abortion when the reason for abortion is that the mother does not want to have children. If only 37% practice, clearly their is a belief system that transcends going to church.

As Western Europe sees declines in church attendance, the Vatican may slowly lose its grasp of its enveloping bordering nation. Additionally, if Italy's new relaxing of immigration legislation encourages more immigration, the Albanian and North African Muslims may swing the pendulum somewhat. Statistics show that Orthodox Christians from Eastern Europe are coming in large numbers too.

The success of the current measure may help us understand better how the Vatican is fairing in what was once a ruling faction of the area for centuries.